Snow, Ooko share second round lead in Royal Safari Tour

First leg winner Greg Snow made his first move to the top of the leaderboard as the Safari Tour second leg entered its second day at the par 72 Royal Nairobi Golf Club course Tuesday.

Snow, a winner of five events last season, fired three under par 69 in the second round despite dropping a shot at the home green, after missing the green on two. He had also dropped a shot in the first nine’s third hole, to tie at the top with Golf Park’s Eric Ooko on two under par 142.

Though Snow said the course was playing easy, he however blamed the greens which he said were not consistent.

“Some greens are slow while others are very fast, and so it makes it difficult to understand them. I would have easily brought a lower score than three under par,’’ said Snow who was four under par standing on the 18^th hole tee where he hit a solid driver to the centre of the fairway, though his approach shot touched the branch of the right side trees.

He however chipped short off the green, for a bogey, to drop to three under par. Like Snow, Ooko, formerly of Royal now based at Golf Park, also made an early birdie at the par five-second and went two under at the second par five-seventh, then picked up a birdie at the par four-11^th.

He remained steady on three under until at the 18^th where he was just at the fringe for two, made a poor chip, to drop his only shot of the day.

“I am happy with my round, it feels good sharing the lead though I had several  birdie chances which would have easily taken me up on my own, but will see how it goes tomorrow,’’ said Ooko, who lost last year’s Royal leg to Golf Park’s Tony Omulli in a play-off.

A total of 24 players including two junior amateurs, made the seven over par 151 cut and will battle it out along with the surviving pros in the remaining two rounds of the Sh1 million tournament.

The two are Muthaiga’s Mutahi Kibugu and Nyali Golf and Country Club’s Adel Balala. Kibugu shot one under par 71 to tie for third place with Zimbabwe’s Robson Chinhoi and former Kenya Amateur Golf Championship (KAGC) series champion Samuel Njoroge who also shot one under par 71 for a two rounds total of 143.

Kibugu eagled the seventh after making a birdie at the third and later on at the 10^th and 14^th. It was however not a good start for him as he bogeyed the first two holes, and later on made two back-to-back bogeys at the fifth and sixth.

“I really shouldn't have dropped some of those shots, though I managed to recover some shots,’’ said Kibugu. The Zimbabwean on the other hand, had a total of six birdies but also made four single bogeys and a double at the par five-15^th.

Day one leader John Wangai will definitely want to forget the second round. He made six bogeys with only two birdies, to drop to sixth place on level par 144 after a 75 in the second round. “It was a bad day for me, as nothing worked well the way I had anticipated. There are however two more rounds to be played, so will try and made some improvement,’’ Wangai said.

The leaderboard after round two;

Greg Snow (Muthaiga) 73, 69= 142

Eric Ooko (Golf Park) 72, 70= 142

Mutahi Kibugu (A- Muthaiga) 72, 71= 143

Samuel Njoroge (Railway) 72, 71= 143

Robson Chinhoi (Zim) 71, 72= 143

John Wangai (Sigona) 69, 75= 144

Dennis Saikwa (Royal) 74, 71= 145

Kopan Timbe (Thika Greens) 70, 75= 145

Adel Balala (A-Nyali) 74, 73= 147

Simon Ngige (Thika) 72, 75= 147.